GO, BRANDON!
If you have a young teen in your life, or if you hanker after some inspirational reading about said demographic, you’ll love Gregory Fletcher’s two-book series, Other People’s Crazy and Other People’s Drama. Protagonist Brandon Filips, age 15 and a high school sophomore when Other People’s Crazy begins, is the biggest kid in his school. Big, as in tall. Big, as in overweight. And yet, he is being bullied by a little punk named Stuart who has a way with a video camera and some editing skills.
That’s the beginning of Brandon’s problems. His single mom Glory is struggling to get by financially, and yet she teaches Brandon important habits of mind that allow him to not just overcome his difficulties but really turn them around. By the end of Other People’s Crazy, you will really care about Brandon and what is going to happen to him. He manages to overcome a lot in this first book, including losing weight, finding a career path, coming to terms with his father’s identity, and making some friends (and even a girlfriend). Is it possible that he has basically attained the perfect life?
You’ll want to spend more time with young Brandon, so you’ll turn to volume 2, Other People’s Drama, to find out that things are maybe not quite as perfect as they seemed at the end of volume 1. Now Brandon has moved onto his junior year of high school, with an important role in his school’s production in Of Mice and Men, but things that seemed so perfect at the end of his sophomore year have gotten a little complicated. Of course, Brandon hopes his single mom will find love and financial security, but what if the person she gets involved with is someone Brandon can’t stand? And what if the friends Brandon made are less than loyal? And what if some of Brandon’s neighbors face danger from immigration authorities?
Set in Arizona, the heat is palpable, the car culture inescapable. But the diversity is a real revelation to this East Coast reader — Brandon has important people in his life from Japan, Mexico, and Yemen. He is learning Spanish and Arabic, and this boy offers one of the most cogent and charming explanations I’ve seen for why we say Black Lives Matter instead of All Lives Matter. He’s smart and courageous in ways he doesn’t even realize, but will come to discover as he learns more about the challenges faced by other people.
Told with warmth and humor, readers of all ages will be charmed by sweet Brandon as he learns important lessons about love, friendship, personal hygiene, and his own strengths. Perhaps the key to Brandon’s coming-of-age lies in the titles of these books — it’s easy to dismiss problems as “other people’s” doing, but it’s only when Brandon takes responsibility for his own choices that he begins to find his way to the life he wants to live.
Other People’s Crazy / Other People’s Drama
both in paperback and on kindle
available at Amazon
Amazon Author Page
